Moving on: Olympic College’s historic
volleyball season continues. The Rangers (43-4) beat Tacoma 3-1 at
the NWAACC Championships earlier Friday and takes on host Mount
Hood Friday at 6:30 p.m. in the semifinals. The match will be
streamed
live here. Blue Mountain and Highline are in the other
semifinal in the double-elimination tournament. OC lost its first
set, but roared back to win the next three against Tacoma, a team
it beat six straight times during the regular season. Winner’s
bracket finals are Saturday at 1:30 p.m. with the championship
match Sunday at 3 p.m. All tournament games are being live
streamed.

Fantasy time: It’s that time of year when
baseball fans can starting dreaming about signing free agents and
making trades to help their teams. If you’re a Seattle Mariners
fan, wouldn’t it be cool if they could figure out a way to start
the 2014 season with Jacob Ellsbury in center field and Sin-Shoo
Choo in left and have them hit 1-2 in the order.

Ah, the Huskies: Washington’s 6-4 and the
thought of a another 7-6 season has Husky fans howling to the moon.
There’s even an @fireSark twitter account out there. That’s a
little harsh. Washington’s continuing road struggles and and
inability to beat good teams is frustrating. The move to the
hurry-up spread offense seemed like a good move at the time, and it
still does, but maybe we should have realized that it wasn’t going
to be an overnight success. Sark and his staff had been recruiting
linemen to play power football for four years, and now they need
quick, athletic guys up front to make it work.

And Washington’s lack of depth on the defensive side of the ball
has been glaring. When you’re running the quick-strike offense,
your defense is going to be on the field a lot, and this Husky
defense, as promising as it looked early on, has been very average
of late. They’ve not been able to recruit a true pass rusher, an
NFL-type defensive end and that has been a problem.

As disappointing as this season has been to date, Washington
could still finish 9-4 by winning out and 9-4 is pretty good. If
that’s how it plays out — Washington beats Oregon State (Saturday,
7:30 p.m., ESPN2) on the road, beats Washington State at home
(Friday, Nov. 27, 12:30 p.m., FOX) and wins a bowl game —
everybody should be happy.

Seahawks-Saints: Everybody is looking forward
to the Nov. 30 MNF showdown at the Clink. The Seahawks (9-1) have a
bye this week and the Saints (8-2) are coming off of a rather
ho-hum 17-13 win at Atlanta. Seattle won at Atlanta, 33-10,
dominating the Falcons in every part of the game. Drew Brees will
be a challenge, and the Saints defense is one of the league’s best,
but Seattle has been playing at another level the past two weeks. I
don’t see any kind of a letdown coming for this, not on a Monday
night with the nation watching. I’m looking forward to the matchup
between New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham and Seahawks’ safety Cam
Chancellor.

Still sliding: Bremerton’s Bree
Schaaf won a bronze medal at the North American Cup races
in Calgary last weekend, and is competing at Park City, Utah, this
weekend. Schaaf finished fifth at the 2010 Winter Olympics and
after a year of rehabilitation following hip surgery, she
was fourth at the national selection races last month. Only the top
three were picked to compete int he World Cup. The 2014 Olympic
team will be announced on Jan. 19 and points collected in
international competitions will play a role when the team is
named.

“I of course planned on making the national team so it was a bit
of a shock and a scramble to make self-funded North American Cup
happen,” Schaaf said. “Despite the Games being a long shot now, I
found support in a wonderful company out of Denver called Crescent
Point. It was truly heartwarming that despite my candor regarding
Olympic qualification chances that a company would still have faith
and support me like this.”

Schaaf teamed with Tracey Stewart last week.

“This has been a North American Cup like no other,” Schaaf said.
“We were fully staffed and felt fortunate to have such incredible
coaches along with a team manager and sled tech. Special thanks to
Tracey for pushing me and keeping the dream alive.”

Update: Schaaf finished fourth in today’s first race, behind two
Americans (No. 1 Elana Meyers and No. 2 Jamie Gruebel but ahead of
USA No. 3 driver Jazmine Fenalator, who was eighth). The second
race is coming up and
will be live streamed.

Kelly green scene: Congratulations are in order for
Bob Kelly, father of pro golfer Troy
Kelly. Bob recently beat his age, shooting a 66 at
Meadowpark Golf Course in Tacoma. One of his other sons,
Ryan, also had a hole-in-one at the West Richland
Golf Course while winning his amateur division of the Tri-City
Budweiser Open in Richland. As for Troy, he plans to play in five
Web.com tournaments next year and he’s also exempt for 14 PGA Tour
events. Kelly’s 2013 season was cut short because of knee
surgery.

Baseball musings: Kansas City’s signing of
Jason Vargas (4 years, $32 million) could be a good thing for free
agent pitcher Jason Hammel.
The Giants reportedly have interest in signing the 6-foot-6
right-hander, a South Kitsap grad. … Willie
Bloomquist’s name has been thrown around as a possible
utility infielder for the Reds, Red Sox and Dodgers. The free agent
from Port Orchard would prefer to re-sign with Arizona, but sounds
like that might he a long shot. Last time around the free agency
trail, Bloomquist turned down more money from the Giants to sign
with the Diamondbacks. … Bloomquist and Jason
Ellison were among those attending the memorial service
for their ex-high school coach, Elton Goodwin,
last weekend. … In case you missed it, another former South Kitsap
star, Aaron Cunningham, signed a minor-league deal
with the Cubs. Did you know that Cunningham
once sold his car to rapper Ice T? Yeah, for real. …
Drew Vettleson, the former Central Kitsap star, is
a No. 5 pick in
this faketeams.com. fantasy draft. Check it out for their
opinion about Vettleson’s upside. They project the left-handed
hitting outfielder to be an above average player at the MLB level,
hitting .280 with 20 home-run power during his peak years.
Vettleson will likely start the 2014 season at Double-A.
... Brady Steiger, a South Kitsap grad and former
Lewis-Clark State star who signed with the New York Yankees last
summer, is available for private hitting lessons at the
West Hills Vipers facility.